Russia tries to distract attention from crimes in Ukraine with dubious action: the Kremlin will involve "agents of influence" - RLI

The aggressor country Russia continues to commit cruel and cynical crimes against civilians in Ukraine, including children. At the same time, the Kremlin makes every effort to deny Russia's guilt for these crimes and even engages so-called "agents of influence" in Europe to do so.

In particular, the Russian Foreign Ministry intends to hold a propaganda press conference, which demonstrates a clear attempt to dilute international attention to Russia's war crimes against Ukrainian children. This was reported by the Robert Lansing Institute for Global Threat and Democracy Studies.

Moscow is trying to shift responsibility for crimes against children onto the coalition of Western democracies. Researchers believe that Russian propagandists will actively report on the deaths of children in armed conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, placing the blame on the United States. In addition, the Russian Federation will accuse the West of forcing thousands of Syrian children to become refugees.

One of the objectives pursued by Moscow is to falsify facts, portraying the actions of Russian troops in Ukraine as an attempt to evacuate Ukrainian children allegedly to "ensure their safety and further reunification with their loved ones.

Notably, Russia's attempt to justify the deportation of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children may be linked to the International Criminal Court in The Hague issuing an arrest warrant for dictator Vladimir Putin. The aggressor country's sharp reaction to the court's decision was an attempt to shift the blame to the West, which is a traditional practice of Russian propaganda.

The Russian Federation intends to use in the propaganda event the so-called "agents of influence", which the Russian intelligence has long used in its operations in the West. Among them is Mira Terada (Oksana Vovk), the personal propagandist of the war criminal and head of the Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin. She positions herself as a human rights activist, but is also known to have served time in prison in the U.S. on charges of money laundering. However, she avoided a more serious conviction for drug trafficking.

Other "agents of influence" are expected to include Polish human rights activist Joanna Paszkiewicz, known for spreading numerous pro-Russian and anti-European narratives, and Iraq war veteran Daniel Bosworth, who has lived with his family in Russia for the past 10 years. By the way, he had already participated in the Russian IPSO in March 2022, when he openly supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The aggressor country may also use the British blogger and ardent supporter of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria, Vanessa Biely, known for her anti-Semitic views. She has been living in Syria since 2021, in contact with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, who, in turn, is in close contact with Russian military intelligence.

Another propagandist who would justify the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia would be Dutch journalist Sonja van den Ende, who publishes reports about the futility of supporting Ukraine and justifying the Russian invasion. The Russian Federation also used her in military intelligence operations to compromise the Joint Investigation Team investigating the crash of MH17.

Analysts at the Robert Lansing Institute for Global Threat and Democracy Studies are confident that the propaganda event organized by the Russian Foreign Ministry will have no effect on the general international perception of Russian war crimes against children in Ukraine. At the same time, it will further compromise the "agents of influence" who cooperate with the Russians.

We recall that Daria Gerasymchuk, the Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights and Rehabilitation, said that young Ukrainians deported from the temporarily occupied territories to Russia are subjected to bodily and psychological violence. The reason for the "educational work" is that they refuse to play the words of the Russian anthem and mention that they are citizens of Ukraine.

Earlier, it was reported that since the start of full-scale war, the aggressor country Russia had kidnapped and deported 19,514 Ukrainian children from Ukraine . Parents managed to return 327 minors.

As OBOZREVATEL reported, the European Commission, together with Ukraine and Poland launched an initiative for the return of children abducted by Russia. There noted that the deportation of children is a war crime.

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